An Inclination Toward Badness

King David himself identified one cause of evil acts. After his crimes were exposed, he accepted full responsibility for his actions. He then remorsefully wrote: “Look! With error I was brought forth with birth pains, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) It was never God’s purpose for mothers to conceive children who would sin. However, when Eve and then Adam chose to rebel against God, they lost the ability to produce sinless children. (Romans 5:12) As the imperfect human race increased in number, it became evident that “the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up.”​—Genesis 8:21.

If left unchecked, this inclination toward badness results in “fornication, . . . enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies,” and other destructive behavior that the Bible describes as “works of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:19-21) In the case of King David, he gave in to fleshly weakness and committed fornication, which resulted in strife. (2 Samuel 12:1-12) He could have resisted his immoral inclination. Instead, by dwelling on his desire for Bath-sheba, David followed the pattern later described by the disciple James: “Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.”​—James 1:14, 15.

The mass murders, rapes, and pillaging mentioned in the preceding article are extreme examples of what happens when people allow wrong desires to dictate their actions.

Removing the Inclination Toward Badness

If evil is to be permanently eliminated from human society, man’s inborn inclination toward badness, his lack of accurate knowledge, and Satan’s influence must be addressed. First, how can man’s inborn inclination toward sin be removed from his heart?

No human surgeon or man-made medicine can perform that task. Jehovah God, though, has provided a cure for inherited sin and imperfection for all those willing to accept it. The apostle John wrote: “The blood of Jesus . . . cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) When the perfect man Jesus voluntarily offered up his life, he “bore our sins in his own body upon the stake, in order that we might be done with sins and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus’ sacrificial death would counterbalance the effects of Adam’s evil act. Paul states that Christ Jesus became “a corresponding ransom for all.” (1 Timothy 2:6) Yes, Christ’s death opened the way for all mankind to regain the perfection that Adam had lost.